Friday, September 30, 2011

Some of you may remember the old Hank Williams song If You Got The Money Honey I Got The Time. Well in retirement we may or may not have the money but we do have some new found time. How could we use that new found time? Well we could tell our spouse what to do but the only use of time that would provide is the time building the dog house we would soon be living in. A more productive pursuit might be to find a hobby, voluntary activity or part-time work. The purpose of this blog is to provide some ideas concerning hobbies or part-time work using a career personality survey called the Self Directed Search. www.self-directed-search.org

What Is The Self Directed Search

One man deserves credit for the Self Directed Search: Dr. John Holland. Dr. Holland is a professor of psychology at Johns Hopkins University and one of the nations preeminent career counselors. He developed the theory of the Self Directed Search while working as a classification specialist with the U.S. Army. Dr. Holland concluded that there are six basic personality types and six work environments and that by matching the personality with the work environment , one could help career searchers and those searching for college majors choose a satisfying career. The tests and surveys based on these personality types( Dr. Holland called them codes) have become the widest career counseling tools in the world. So what are these six types? Glad you asked; here they are:

Realistic

Investigative

Social

Artistic

Enterprising

Conventional

Realistic: Realistics are people who prefer what they consider the real world, the world they can see hear, smell , touch and feel. They like to work outdoors or with their hands. They usually like sports and are often quite good at them. Their favorite T. V. shows might include Extreme House Makeover and any sports shows.

Possible hobbies and jobs for Realistics: gardening, landscaping, woodworking, golf, tennis work at Home Depot or Lowes, teach a physical skill.

Social: Social types enjoy working with people and also excel usually at mentoring and teaching. They are also good team players. Favorite T. V. shows: Dr. PHIL, Oprah

Possible jobs and hobbies. teaching,tutoring, any retail work that is service related, church worker, volunteering in hospital

Enterprising: Enterprising types like to be in responsible positions, are good decision makers, and are action oriented. They also are often good at speaking to groups. Favorite T.V.shows: Donald Trumps Apprentice

Possible jobs and hobbies: Toastmasters , sales, speak to groups about jobs, start their own business announce sporting events for school

Conventional: Conventional types like to use organizational or clerical skills. They are usually very good at detail work and math. Favorite T. V. show: Numbers

Possible jobs or hobbies: Helping others with income tax or budgeting, cooking, working in bank, helping people organize

Your TURN

1. Which of the Holland personality types are you and does it fit with any of your work history or hobbies?

2. How do you spend or plan to spend your extra time in retirement?

3. Any other comment you wish to make as long as it's not a personal attack or overly political.

4. To comment, just click on "comments" below and a screen will appear for your comments

About Me

I was born at an early age! Sorry , I stole that from Graucho Marx, but I always wanted to use this line.Actually ,I was born in Corsicana Tx and grew up in Corsicana and Waco. After graduating from high school and, having no idea what I wanted to do with my life, I joined the U.S. Army and spent three years, mostly in Germany with the 24th infantry division. This turned out to have been wise as I was able to use the GI bill to obtain a bachelor's degree, in history, from Baylor University . Later I managed to prove that if one is tenacious enough, any academic accomplishment is possible, by getting masters degrees in history and counseling. My 38 year career in education started as a teacher at LaVega High School and included stops at Alief Middle School, Dulles High School, Willowridge High School, Clements High School and Houston Community College. I enjoyed all my teaching jobs, but , in 2005, I found the job I was most skilled in- retirement. Seriously I plan to use this blog to explore the journey of the retirement years, healthy aging, education issues and occasional nostalgia. The journey won't mean much though without you, the reader coming along, so welcome.